Week 28: Preparing for a baby…again!

As I sit here and watch C ride her rocking horse and giggle, or while I watch her eat macaroni with a fork, or see her put a block into the correctly shaped slot, I have to remind myself that it isn’t always like this.

Most people have heard of the phrase “pregnancy amnesia” where a woman forgets the hassles, aches, and pains of pregnancy not long after delivery. I’m now discovering that there is a whole “baby phase amnesia” too. I see pictures of C as a baby, and it’s weird to think she hasn’t always been the age she is now.

As I was packing up some of C’s old baby things for the upcoming move, my husband brought a stack of small bibs into the room and asked if we should get rid of them. I asked him why we would do that with another baby on the way, and his reasoning is that the pocket bibs C uses are much better at catching food. I had to remind him that we use bibs well before they are eating solids for the massive amounts of drool that babies produce. He’d forgotten about that.

I’m trying to remind myself, and therefore prepare myself, for all of the other little baby things I may have forgotten about. Things like the dreaded tummy time, battling drowsiness in a nursing baby, grunting while sleeping (the baby, not me!), and being covered in spit up all the time.

There are a few things that I will do differently this time around. We are going to co-sleep with the new baby this time. C slept in our room for 4 months, but not in our bed. We’ll get more sleep having the new one in bed with us, especially since I’m breastfeeding. I’ll also baby-wear a lot more. I see this as more of a necessity since I’ll be chasing a toddler around during the newborn phase.

I’m excited to see how my husband and I handle a newborn for the second time around. After all, we are experts in parenting now that we’ve had one baby.

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The biggest change between baby #1 and baby #2 for us will be that I am not going to going back to work. I quit my job when baby #1 was 9 months old and he is 2 now, so I have had plenty of time to adjust to the SAHM thing. However, a lot more of the baby responsibilities are going to fall on me this time. It is almost like this baby will be our first because we missed so much while he was in daycare. I am excited for April to get here so that we can get this party started.

Jennifer in VT

It has hit me hard since I started watching my niece when she was just 6 weeks old. I had forgotten about the fussiness and wanting to only be held and sleeping only a little bit(no 3 hour nap). My husband is a farmer so he comes and goes through out the day he to had forgotten this faze. Our oldest is almost 4 and our youngest is 21 months so we have not been out of the game that long. Our youngest was colicy too so it was not all roses and sunshine but really I was not ready for it.

Having some issues with my comments posting lately…. how this works

Jennifer in VT

Should be hope this works…

Soon to be 5 under 5

Cute post 🙂 I’m lucky I don’t have time for baby amenesia, as mine are 4, 3, 2, 1, and baby #5 is due in 4 and 1/2 weeks. No time to forget the baby phase with them so close together! 🙂

Lilandi

I’m also expecting no 2 in april, with my first daughter 15 months now. I can relate to so much of what you are sharing! This month we have started stocking up on all sorts of newborn stuff again, and I can’t believe Z was ever so small!

Jenna C

My son just turned a year and I am barely packing up his newborn stuff (major procrastinator, I know). Going through it I can’t believe how little he was or how much extra stuff we needed for him. He is getting so big I can’t imagine the shock we are in for when we decide to have #2.

Tess

I just wanted to say thank you for this post! My daughter is 2 and we have another little girl due in May. I’ve been feeling like a crazy person because, of course, I’ve been wracking my brain to remember all the newborn and baby stuff, but I seem to have this sort of blank spot about my daughter’s baby phase. Not all of it, obviously, but the logistics and specifics. She’s such a little person now, remembering before I knew her so well seems odd. I know I should be pretty set, having been through this before recently, but I have the feeling I’m going to be blindsided!

Allena

I’m 37 weeks with #3.. My oldest is going to be 11 this year, the next is about to be 2. Quite the age gap between #1 & 2, so I def. had forgotten most of the newborn/toddler years. I love seeing blogs/posts like yours to remind parents 🙂 Thank you for sharing your story.

Ale

I have forgotten a lot, I’m in my 7 week, my oldest is 8 and the second 6, and this is my third, is a little scary but i think things are different now and i will enjoy it even more

Minni

This will be the 5th addition to our family, and I am in my 12th week. With all of our kids under the age of 10, and our little man at a year and a half, I have forgotten so much of pregnancy and little babies already! All of our kids are very independent and it will be a little daunting to bring a little one into the CHAOS… Especially, since we thought little man was our last! I now see that we have spoiled him beyond belief, and am worried how well or badly he’s going to take his spot being usurped….